There are no miracles
by RachelNW
Summary: Based loosely on the events of RE6 this follows Chris Redfield and a new character of my own creation through the struggle to save a world and people that sometimes don't seem worth saving. First fanfic so reviews would be greatly appreciated. Poss. ChrisxOC later and other characters that I haven't considered yet. Rated M for violence/gore/sexual content to come so stick around
1. Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER - I do not own RE or any of the affilliated aspects mentioned in this story all rights go to capcom

Rachel King however is my own and totally not just a thinly veiled extension of myself...because that would be sad.

oOo

"It wasn't your fault you know" the voice announced from a dark corner, about ten feet from where he was sitting on the crossbar of the weight machine he had been furiously working for the past fifteen minutes.

Chris looked up, muscles burning and chest heaving, disrupted from his brooding rage by that voice in the darkness. He stared into the gloom, taking a few seconds for his eyes to adjust before he could really make out any details of who it was he was about to give a lesson in learning to read peoples moods; as they didn't seem to notice that his currently screamed 'leave me the fuck alone'.

"I saw through the feed – looked like it went to shit pretty quickly over there?" It sounded more like a question than a statement, but Chris would be damned if he was going to answer it, he was content to continue to stare silently at the now visible figure of Rachel King. The woman had turned up two months earlier, with her likeable personality at odds with her (in his opinion) frankly shady agenda. She had been working in close proximity with both him and his entire team all the while she had been in the base and yet they knew practically nothing about her, Chris resisted the urge to yell at her, scream for her to get out and not come back. Only his curiosity at why she thought it was her place to be here during one of the lowest points of both his career and personal life cooled his rage a little. She was also sitting atop a piece of equipment, but she wasn't breathing heavily or sweating like he was, she hadn't been exercising then. She might have been here before him and in his grief and anger he hadn't noticed her sitting there observing him- and now she was poking him for a reaction? What the _hell _was this woman playing at?

oOo

"If it's any consolation I can't imagine anyone else would have done any different in that situation". The one sided conversation ended and a heavy silence filled the room and hung between the two for what seemed like an eternity but in reality couldn't have been more than a few seconds. Rachel shifted on her seat – not because she was uncomfortable where she was sitting or due to Chris' unwavering stare – but so she was now facing the man straight on. 'What does it take to get a response from this guy?' she thought to herself in the silence. This couldn't be the first time he had lost some of his team in the field, actually she knew for a fact that it wasn't – but perhaps now wasn't the time to share this little insight.

Taking the opportunity to once again size up the man who had managed to pique her interest more than anyone else in the base she couldn't help but once more be both impressed and, under the current circumstances, a little alarmed by the sheer size of the man. Heavily muscled and standing at around six foot two, Chris was certainly built to be a fighter. But his intimidating size was offset by his personality – Chris wasn't prone to anger, which was little comfort at this precise moment because if she was being honest he was pretty terrifying in the state he was in. She wondered again what the hell had possessed her to follow him in here after what he had just been through? But then she remembered why: Chris was kind, Chris was funny, and he was everything everyone should ever be and more. That was why he held her interest and attention and that was why she had followed, with the hope of easing some of the grief and guilt he would be feeling in the wake of the death of six people under his command. 'Not to mention the state the rest of the world would be in if we all break down now' she told herself, 'it cant all be about him - you're trying to save the world here remember?' but truth be told she felt he needed someone, anyone to lean on right now. Especially because of the gruesome betrayal it had been. Holding his gaze she continued to talk.

oOo

"They'll get her Chris, there aren't that many places she can go that the BSAA or someone who works for them won't find her. It's probably not that helpful but I've sent out some feelers of my own too…" Rachel continued to talk but he wasn't really paying attention. Just listening to the sound of her voice comforted him somehow, it was soft and smooth – the novelty that was her British accent had not been lost on him or any of the team for that matter. Neither had the silky blonde hair, the green eyes that never seemed to miss a thing or the cool, confident way she carried herself in every situation. Even now, confronted with his mixture of rage and grief she didn't look alarmed, her voice didn't shake – he had to give her credit for that. He was well aware of how frightening he could be - he just didn't like to use it where it wasn't called for. He didn't want innocent people to be afraid of him. He didn't want _her_ to be afraid of him.

Chris felt his rage subsiding just a little, he relaxed his grip on the equipment in his hands and his knuckles slowly returned to their natural colour rather than the white he hadn't realized they had been. Looking up he once again found her eyes locked with his, he knew why she was here. They didn't have time for Chris to fall into a state of solitary grief and self loathing at not having been able to save his men. Rachel was right – they had been blind sided, no one could have known they were going to be ambushed, that Ada would use his team as cannon fodder to get her to safety and the turn those who had survived – had _protected_ her – into the monsters they had been sent to kill.

Chris needed to get a grip, in an effort to gain some control of the situation he stood suddenly – not missing the quick flash of surprise and perhaps even fear that flashed in Rachel's green eyes. He felt bad that he had purposely scared her but also pleased to have discovered that something could rattle her cool demeanor, even if only for a second. He also noticed she had positioned herself with a large piece of equipment between them, whether that had been a conscious decision he wasn't sure – she didn't seem to have noticed even if he had.

oOo

The sudden movement from Chris startled her; she had half thought that he hadn't actually registered her presence at all. Nevertheless, the sign that she had managed to get through to him she took as a positive one. Anything was better than stony silence surely?

"I know ok? I know it's not completely my fault" he said, his voice thick and gravelly with emotion and receding anger. 'Finally he speaks' Rachel thought with an inward smile, but this was a small victory to be celebrated later, everything they had been working for and against would come to a head sometime in the next few months. They needed the best and Chris was one of them. If a pep talk was what he needed then that was what she would do, they would lose more people before this was over – there would be time to grieve for them afterwards. Assuming there was an after.


	2. Chapter 2

oOo

"Alright people listen up! This is basic self defense so nothing that you shouldn't be able to pick up and implement easily if it comes to that!" Piers Nivans voice rang out clear in the large training room filled with twenty or so research scientists and other members of staff Rachel wasn't familiar with. Tying her long hair up into a messy bun she had to admit that teaching basic self defense was probably going to go a long way towards keeping these people alive long enough to do their jobs at least. "We cannot afford you all to end up needing medical care after this so you will listen to _me_ and _me alone_ while we are in this room…" Nivans sure was taking this seriously 'and definitely enjoying being the one in charge' she thought to herself as she studied the young sniper. The fact that he was very handsome had not escaped her, or the rest of the few female staff according to the giggling as Piers stripped to a vest and began sparring with a volunteer. But despite all his combat training and obvious skill, Piers was a little too much of a pretty boy for her tastes, she preferred older, ruggedly handsome men. Exactly like the one striding down the corridor towards her.

oOo

"Hello Chris" Rachel smiled at him as he approached the training room to check in on how Piers was handling the training. Although it felt a lie to say that checking on Piers had been his only reason for coming to this particular session. Since she had pulled him out of the mire of his grief and anger he had felt that he needed to repay the favour somehow. It seemed to him that the easiest way to do this would be to ensure her safety as best he could as he wouldn't be in the base for much longer, he hoped she would understand that this was his way of saying thank you, however indirectly it was being said.

"So I see you've decided to let the ace loose on us all today? Have you no pity?" She said with mock unhappiness but couldn't hide the smile that went with it. This caused Chris to utter a small laugh – not much, but more than he had laughed for a while. They had fallen into an easy friendship over the past few weeks and he found that he rather enjoyed her company over that of most other people here. "Yeah yeah" he replied while both of them stood watching Piers still sparring with a decidedly less eager volunteer, "I'm sure you'll all be snapping necks in no time". He found himself smiling wider when that received a genuine laugh from his blonde companion as she looked away from Piers and back to him. A small frown settled on her face when she said "we might stop it before it comes to us ever actually using these newfound skills". Chris was about to tell her that that wasn't likely, that the way things were headed they would be fighting long before any of them were ready when she cut off whatever was about to come out of his mouth with the quiet statement "We have to have hope at least don't we".

She looked up at him with those green eyes that saw everything and he saw in her face the conscious decision she made to be optimistic for those around her – including him. She knew everything he had been about to say – but she wouldn't allow herself to say what they both knew to any of those who still didn't think it would be as bad as they were preparing for. Those people were going to get the shock of their lives sooner than anyone wanted to admit. He looked at her and couldn't bring himself to shatter her carefully constructed façade of optimism. So he simply said nothing and they continued to stand in comfortable silence for a minute longer, until Chris patted her on the shoulder in a silent farewell and continued on down the corridor.

oOo

As Chris laid his hand on her shoulder it occurred to her that they had never really touched before. Sure they had been in close proximity while pouring over the same files and field reports, but she had never felt the warmth that seemed to always radiate from his body so directly before. The sudden flush on her cheeks chasing away any dark thoughts their conversation had stirred.

Inwardly chastising herself for becoming such a schoolgirl just because a good looking man had touched her she diverted her attention back to Piers and what he was trying to explain. She was fairly sure that, if they didn't learn how to fight, none of these people (including herself) would live to see the other side of this.

oOo

Chris was glad that he had convinced his superiors that basic combat training and weapons handling was necessary for the majority of staff in light of what they knew to be coming. He felt more at ease knowing that he had done something to prepare everyone for the horrors he had experienced countless times before. Everyone was taking the training seriously in the wake of the disastrous mission hat had occurred only a few weeks prior. In his most cynical of moods Chris would often remind himself that the six men that died had been some of the highest ranked operatives available and had been killed with no more difficulty than had they not been armed at all. What good would a hastily trained bunch of scientists and pencil pushers do? Not to mention the unsuspecting general public? He shook his head trying to remove this pessimistic train of thought. Like Rachel had said: they had to have hope at least.


	3. Chapter 3

Apologies for the long wait but we're back now! Keep in mind when reading that I never said this was going to be exactly canon - just going where the story takes me. Any feedback is greatly appreciated as i'm not completely happy with this chapter but here it is anyway, please review and hopefully enjoy!

oOo

Chris' heavy footsteps reverberated around the alleyway as he led the newly constructed Alpha team toward their destination 'The Ace of Spades' tenement building; here several UN workers were being held hostage by bioterrorists whose motive remained unknown. The mission brief was the same as it always was – go in, save the relevant people, gather as much intel as possible and get out before the bombs start to drop. Quite literally in this case, the BSAA didn't seem too concerned with the amount of collateral damage caused as long as they got what they wanted – a trait Chris wasn't entirely comfortable with.

It felt like they had been walking through the same stretch of anonymous market stalls and alleyways for hours – the expectation for some fresh horror to be waiting around the next corner was etched onto every one of the men's faces. The team worked and moved in silence – the easy banter that had been thrown around on the plane here had subsided as soon as they had landed in China – one of the most heavily populated countries in the world – to find the market streets devoid of life. Human life anyway, if the noises they all could hear were to be believed. What little information HQ had been able to give them matched with what they were seeing on the streets – abandoned cars, bloodstains and an occasional body part, were all convincing evidence that this new BOW – the J'avo – had either gotten loose or been unleashed (the latter being the less appealing and more likely scenario), and these poor people had never stood a chance.

With both Bravo and Charlie teams fighting against a heavy onslaught of fresh BOWs at the Four of Hearts, Alpha team was on its own until the rendezvous with Delta at the Ace of Spades. As Chris and his team continued down the route that had been planned for them, the streets became less deserted the closer they got to the centre of the city, the streets became full of both terrified and injured civilians as well as hostiles. As the bullets whistled past his ears Chris almost longed for the old days when the enemies were all just mindless biting machines rather than machine gun wielding mutating madmen.

"Captain!" Piers voice rang out urgently even above the din of the terrified screams of civilians mixed with the unintelligible cries of the J'avo and the gunfire. Chris retreated back behind cover before turning his attention to his second in command, "We need to get off the streets! We're not gonna get there in time to relieve Delta if we're bogged down here!" Chris didn't like the idea of leaving these J'avo free to roam around, leaving innocent civilians somewhere they wouldn't survive did not sit right with him – but Piers was right. This was a rescue mission – but not for these people. They had to get the UN workers being held hostage and get the fuck out of dodge before whoever had organised this whole thing got whatever they wanted from them. Meeting Piers gaze he nodded quickly and began to speak into the radio strapped to his shoulder – "HQ this is Alpha team, we need another route preferably off the main streets or we're not gonna get to the hostages in time!" The voice on the radio was silent only a few seconds before a reply crackled through "Roger on that decease with route four and proceed with route niner – being patched to your GPS now, over". Chris gave the download a good thirty seconds to process before switching to the new route and motioning for his team to move up and towards the alley on the right. Chris provided covering fire for the men as they kicked down the door of the building they were to cut through in an effort to avoid getting caught in another shoot out with yet more J'avo approaching from the west. A well delivered headshot to the closest enemy resulted with the satisfying sight of him going down in one – shooting the rocket launcher he was aiming at Chris' men into scaffolding directly above the rest of the BOW's sending it tumbling down with all its crushing weight directly on top of them. Noting that the team had managed to get the door open by this point Chris threw an incendiary grenade in case of any remaining enemies and followed his men into the dark, abandoned building.

Navigating this new route had been a good idea – there were still J'avo to kill but no where near as many as were roaming the streets. Chris wasn't arrogant enough to think they could take them all on and survive – much less make it to the hostages and protect them. They had already been briefed on the new virus and what it created after they had encountered them in Edonia. "Extremely intelligent, incredibly strong and have the ability to mutate in response to physical trauma" was the description given at the time by the rookie of the team Finn Macauley – he had been a sweet kid, maybe a little naïve but skilled nonetheless. That was until Chris had watched him turn into a monster before his eyes – hand outstretched, Finn had been reaching for him even as he felt the virus mutating his body… Chris shook himself out of his reverie. 'Not the time' he chastened himself, angry that he almost let himself get distracted by the memory of the dead when more of his men were relying on him.

The journey to the target destination was a rapid blur of gunfire, mutated claws, and the odd direct order from HQ. Despite all that had been thrown at them so far the new Alpha team had managed to stay calm and collected and now they were at the ace of spades – ready to save the day. Chris felt a small rush of pride that these men had flourished under his command – especially as they hadn't actually been _his_ men until a few weeks ago. Chris was brought back to the present by the voice of HQ crackling once more through the radio – "HQ to Alpha. We have your mission brief. Rescue the hostages on the first and seventh floors, and then get out of the building. As soon as all teams are clear we will commence bombing." The click of the radio signalled the end of the transmission and the real beginning of this mission.

oOo

Chris looked back at the blazing ruin that he had been fighting his way through only moments before. The bombing had definitely done the job; all that remained of the building were the bare bones of the place – reaching up into the sky like a skeleton of some long dead behemoth. Escaping by the skin of his teeth was something Chris had gotten used to after the first dozen or so times – but escaping burning to death by literally seconds had a way of reminding him that his life was _fucking dangerous_. Chris heaved a heavy sigh and turned away from the smoking ruin to check on his team. With the hostages safely being transported to the nearest airfield after receiving swift and rudimentary first aid from BSAA operatives that Chris just about recognised - there was nothing more to do than get his own men back to base and begin the process of sifting through he intel they had gathered here and hope that there was something that could be used in the fight they all knew was brewing on the horizon.


End file.
